U.S. Ruling Drops Rights of Some Captured in Iraq -NYT

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - A new legal opinion by the Bush administration has concluded for the first time that some non-Iraqi prisoners captured by American forces in Iraq are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, administration officials said Monday.

The opinion, reached in recent months, establishes an important exception to public assertions by the Bush administration since March 2003 that the Geneva Conventions applied comprehensively to prisoners taken in the conflict in Iraq, the officials said. They said the opinion would essentially allow the military and the C.I.A. to treat at least a small number of non-Iraqi prisoners captured in Iraq in the same way as members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere, for whom the United States has maintained that the Geneva Conventions do not apply.
.......
The administration officials did not specify exactly how decisions about an individual's status under the Geneva Conventions would be made. But they said that the factors would include nationality, affiliation with terrorist organizations and activities inside Iraq, and that the decisions would be made by American government agencies who held the individuals in their custody.

As recently as May 2004, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reiterated in public testimony the administration's view that "everyone in Iraq who was a military person" as well as "the civilians or criminal elements" who were detained by the American authorities would be "treated subject to the Geneva Conventions."

http://nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/26detain.html?hp&ex=1098763200&en=aec28bb5d2df0aa4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Inland]

1. Secret policies directly contradicting admin. statements. There is no law

respected by these despots, no review of their actions, no limits on their power except one, last chance to remove them from office.

[Rose Siding]

3. This was *policy* outlined in response to a WP article...

And they have the NERVE to criticize Kerry for SPEAKING about what's in the news?

snip>
The officials outlined the opinion on Monday in response to a report in The Washington Post over the weekend that the Central Intelligence Agency had secretly transferred a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18 months, despite a provision in the conventions that bars civilians protected under the accords from being deported from occupied territories.

[Kimber Scott]

2. They just make up rules as they go along. Our strength as a country

rests on the rule of law. You can't just make them up as you go, no matter how much you would like to. Who's flip-flopping now?

[pfitz59]

5. Entire administration is above the law.

We knew it would come to this when Fat Tony intervened, not once, but twice! Our nation is being destroyed, every day, by the BushCO termites! They are eating away at the foundations of the Republic,untill it collapses. Should the Dems regain control, it will still take decades, if not generations to undo the havoc these assholes have wrought.

[wicket]

4. kick!

:kick:

[maddezmom]

6. changing the rules as they go

[UpInArms]

7. related article at the Moonie Times

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041026-073806-1446r.htm

Washington, DC, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A Bush administration legal opinion says not all non-Iraqi prisoners captured in Iraq are protected by the Geneva Convention, the New York Times reports.

White House officials said the opinion would allow the military and the CIA to treat a small number of non-Iraqi prisoners captured in Iraq the same way as members of al-Qaida and the Taliban captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere.

The officials outlined the opinion in response to a Washington Post report the Central Intelligence Agency had secretly transferred a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18 months.

...more...